Lucy Carraz, our head of government sector and ESG lead for UK, Europe and India talks about inclusivity – what this means for our clients’ projects and how we as an organization shape and drive this through our equity, diversity and inclusion committee.
What are some of the key challenges our government and public sector clients in the UK and Ireland are facing?
The biggest and most common challenge our clients are facing is achieving net zero and this is made more challenging with the need to develop the green skills we need for the future and ensuring a just transition. Our role is focused on supporting the decarbonization of the public sector estates and identifying how organizations can work together on the path to net zero energy costs. The size, scale and complexity of our clients’ challenges varies across the UK. Different parts of the country and different sectors are all at different stages of their net zero journeys, driven by widely varying historical levels of investment. Levelling up and the link to achieving net zero together with the need to work in partnership is something our Net Zero lead Helena Rivers has been actively championing to reduce the inequality.
Energy security and skills shortages are also challenges that we’re seeing our clients facing. We have many programs of work which are all competing for the same skills and materials. As an industry, we can work together to increase visibility of the skills required and match the right people to the right roles on the right projects. We can help create significant local employment opportunities and provide skills which will be in demand for decades. We have a long history of working closely with schools via our STEM ambassadors, but we’re also now looking to work with organizations to better understand how we can create and offer opportunities to the homeless and ex-offenders.
What are some of the trends we're seeing across the sector and what's our response to this?
We are definitely starting to see much greater collaboration across the industry. We are sharing lessons from one organization to another and from sector to sector. We’re seeing a cultural shift from organizations competing for credit to sharing best practice and knowledge to achieve better and faster outcomes as a whole.
We’ve also seen a real shift and elevation in social value and the positive impact we can have on communities through our projects. Whilst it may have started for many organizations with the requirements of the Procurement Policy Note (PPN) 06/20 which promotes social value in the award of contracts there has now been a larger cultural shift and we see it in the design of places and buildings right from the outset to drive positive outcomes including wellbeing and opportunities in diverse communities.
How are we designing in social impact for the future?
There’s a real drive from the public sector to modernize, reduce wastage and increase efficiency. A good example of this is the work we've been doing with His Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC) developing a relocations program and designing a more modern workspace for civil servants. A big part of what we’re doing is inclusive design. Our multidisciplinary team of architects, interior designers and service engineers has been working with HMRC to create great inclusive spaces. We’ve optimized physical access as well as included spaces to support neurodiversity and amenities for assistance dogs.
Our Sustainable Development Group has worked working closely for a number of years with the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial (BEIS), now the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) We’re helping to shape upcoming policy as well as helping to overseeing funding of some of their decarbonization programs and city plans. Our team also worked with the Department to support the design of homes and buildings for 2050, helping to answer questions such as What should buildings look like? How can we decarbonize the public sector estate? How do we design in sustainability?
Digital also has a massive role to play. Our teams have been at the forefront of designing digital tools to assess, measure and reduce carbon at all stages of development from design through to construction, operation and maintenance. Making better decisions, earlier in the process is where we can really make a difference.
Why is social value important?
Social value sits at the center of everything we do for our clients. It's about climate change, equity, diversity, inclusion and mental wellbeing. It’s also about economic resilience and how we can help our towns, cities and communities be stronger and more resilient post Covid-19 by working with local small and medium sized businesses.
How do you build social value and sustainability into projects for our clients?
It has to be done as early as possible in the process. Our procurement advisory team is excellent at this and helps to set the strategy, based on the outcomes we know our clients and potential future clients want to achieve. We build it in through our design work such as the architectural, interior design and engineering choices we make such as designs around the fabric of the building and façade design. We also support our clients identify potential funding streams and develop business plans.